Key Stats & Takeaways
- 30+ new insights on Flight Booking & Airline shopper habits and preferences
- 3,125 US online shoppers surveyed in this quantitative UX study
- Flight Booking & Airline shoppers use a variety of sources when looking for flights, are highly likely to participate in loyalty programs, and commonly bundle other travel-related bookings at the same time, particularly when travelling for business.
At Baymard, we’ve just released new Quantitative Insights into people who shop on “Flight Booking & Airlines” sites, expanding our understanding of the habits and preferences of online shoppers in this category.
These insights are visualizations based on survey data that supplement and support our large-scale UX research findings and benchmarking of the Flight Booking & Airlines industry.
The 30+ insights address the Flight Booking & Airlines online shopping experience, spanning a breadth of topics: sources for flight searching, types of add-ons purchased, usage of apps and external tools, importance of cancellations, sales and scarcity incentives, and motivations for bundling and loyalty programs.
Some of the charts also explore sub-segments of the broader audience such as business travelers and whether they are more likely to purchase add-ons, or how device usage between desktop and mobile changes as flight price becomes more expensive.
These Quantitative Insights empower you to align stakeholders through objective, survey-backed data, streamline A/B testing with high-potential hypotheses, and discover and address industry-specific UX challenges.
In this article, we’ll highlight 3 high-level findings that reflect how shoppers evaluate and purchase flights online:
- Flight shoppers use a variety of sources when looking for flights
- Three quarters of flight shoppers are part of at least one airline loyalty program
- Business travelers are more likely to bundle travel-related bookings
Flight Shoppers Use a Variety of Sources When Looking for Flights
Airline-owned channels like websites (50%) and apps (29%) dominate flight search, but online travel agencies remain well utilized at 38%. (See Quantitative Insight #FB017 for an interactive version of this graph alongside key findings and actionable insights).
Flight shoppers often have to weigh a variety of complex factors when searching for a flight and therefore, look to multiple sources and tools to do so — sometimes more than one.
According to our survey, airline-owned channels dominate flight search, with airline websites being by far the most used source by flight shoppers in their last purchase (50%).
Combined with airline mobile apps (another 29%), this suggests strong brand trust and preference for direct booking.
That said, online travel agencies (OTAs) remain the second-most-used resource at 38%, and aggregators such as Google Flights and Kayak are used by 23% of respondents.
Loyalty programs are also more significant in this industry, with 19% saying that they search their travel rewards or loyalty portal.
All of this suggests that flight shoppers have a broad spread of sources to search for options.
These findings also indicate that shoppers tend to look in more than one place, not necessarily just the direct airline source, underscoring the importance of a strong, prioritized search experience on a site or app’s homepage.
If the search function’s discoverability, autocomplete suggestions, or search results are not clear, users are likely to continue looking elsewhere.
Similarly, as flight shoppers consider and compare various factors, it’s important that pricing is clear across lists and search results, alongside other consistent and comparable attributes, including loyalty points and rewards balances when appropriate.
If users are not provided with clear, relevant, and comprehensive information right away, other sites or services will provide it for them.
See Quantitative Insight #FB017 for an interactive version of this chart alongside key findings and actionable insights.
Three Quarters of Flight Shoppers Are Part of at Least One Airline Loyalty Program
Membership in airline loyalty programs is common among travelers surveyed, with 78% saying they belong to at least one program, higher than the 60% seen in general B2C ecommerce. (See Quantitative Insight #FB046 for an interactive version of this graph alongside key findings and actionable insights).
Loyalty program participation differs across industries, but flight shopping may be among the most widely used.
Our survey shows that membership in airline loyalty programs is very high among travelers, with 78% saying they belong to at least one program, notably higher than the 60% seen in general B2C ecommerce.
Single-airline loyalty dominates the landscape, as 42% of respondents say they belong to a program for just one airline, outpacing multi-airline members (27%) by a wide margin and suggesting most shoppers focus on a primary loyalty relationship.
That said, a meaningful share of members remain disengaged, with 9% saying they belong to a program but do not actively use it, indicating that enrollment alone does not translate to meaningful participation.
With this high adoption rate in mind, information about loyalty programs should be top of mind across the entire flight shopping experience.
The platform should show the points and rewards balance on the user’s account, with the value of the program being prominently highlighted.
Other communication channels, such as loyalty emails, should also include points and reward balances, and a history of earned and redeemed points should also be easily accessible to communicate the continued value of returning to a particular airline or service.
See Quantitative Insight #FB046 for an interactive version of this graph alongside key findings and actionable insights.
Business Travelers Are More Likely to Bundle Travel-Related Bookings
Hotels are the most commonly co-booked add-on for both business and leisure travelers, but business travelers say they co-book hotels at a substantially higher rate (56%) than leisure travelers (35%). (See Quantitative Insight #FB026B for an interactive version of this graph alongside key findings and actionable insights).
Flight shoppers in our survey exhibited a tendency to “bundle” their most recent flight purchase with other travel-related bookings at the same time, including hotels, rental cars, travel insurance, or airport parking.
Interestingly, the frequency of this behavior differs depending on whether the trip was for business or leisure.
Hotels are the most commonly reported co-booked add-on for both business and leisure travelers, but business travelers co-book hotels at a substantially higher rate (56%) than leisure travelers (35%).
Adding to this, business travelers are more likely than leisure travelers to add a rental car (40% vs. 22%), travel insurance (26% vs. 14%), as well as airport transfers or parking (26% vs. 13%).
With that, nearly half of leisure travelers (46%) report making no additional bookings alongside their flight compared to only 18% of business travelers, indicating that leisure travelers are more likely to book travel components separately rather than all at once.
From a strategic standpoint, it’s therefore important to offer bundling cross-sells contextually.
Promotions and special offers should be made visible by default, but they shouldn’t be pushed too aggressively, and they may hold more relevance if targeted towards business flyers over leisure flyers, for example.
See Quantitative Insight #FB026B for an interactive version of this graph alongside key findings and actionable insights.
34 Quantitative Insights to Inform Flight Booking & Airlines UX Improvements
In addition to the 3 insights presented here, all 34 Flight Booking & Airlines UX survey insights are available on Baymard along with our Quantitative Insights for general ecommerce on Awareness & Product Discovery, Consideration & Purchase Behavior, Checkout & Post-Purchase, Loyalty, and other industry-specific studies.
These are just 3 of the insights from our Flight Booking & Airlines quantitative study.
Explore all 34 insights to get an in-depth understanding of the habits and preferences of flight shopping and airline shoppers online.
Use these insights along with our Flight Booking & Airlines UX guidelines based on observed user behavior to inform your UX design decisions for your Flight Booking & Airlines ecommerce store.
Note that we also offer Quantitative Insights for general ecommerce on Awareness & Product Discovery, Consideration & Purchase Behavior, Checkout & Post-Purchase, and Loyalty, many of which are also relevant to Flight booking & Airlines sites.
Getting access: all 30+ Flight Booking & Airlines quantitative insights are available today within Baymard. (If you already have access through an account, open the Flight Booking & Airlines quantitative study).
If you want to know how your Flight Booking & Airlines desktop and mobile site performs and compares, then learn more about getting Baymard to conduct a Flight Booking & Airlines UX audit of your site.
